Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Since the mid-2000s, consistent commentary from politicians and media outlets in the UK have presented low educational attainment and low aspiration as defining attributes of working-class boys in education. It has often characterised them as misogynistic, aggressive and unwilling to learn. But how true is this?
Combining research, real-life case studies and the author’s experience of navigating school exclusion, this book provides clear recommendations for how to better support the health, wellbeing and vulnerabilities of working-class boys and men through both policy and practice.
Challenging us to reconsider ideas about the role of masculinity in the lives of working-class boys and men, the book asks what would change if, instead of focusing on perceived individual failures, we considered the troubled relationship between working-class boys and the social and educational systems in which they reside.
“Compelling, compassionate and uncompromising in its honesty. Lost Boys gives me hope.” Jason ‘Foxy’ Fox, Special Forces Instructor, SAS: Who Dares Wins
“A game-changing take on masculinity – where sharp research meets raw personal insight.” Darren McGarvey, author of Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain’s Underclass
1. Introduction: Standing on the shoulders of giants
2. Masculinity and mental health: the big red button
3. Social mobility: navigating the aspiration trap
4. Societal change: boys, inequality and a ‘successful’ future
5. Working-class boys in London: the capital’s overlooked lads
6. Making the grades: teachers, schools and masculine expectations
7. Boys who care: masculinity, class and being a young carer
8. Being a Boy: learning from the real experts
9. Boys’ Impact: a roadmap to hope
10. Conclusion: The will to change